Apologies for this wall of text, but I have to get this off of my chest:

If I read his quote correctly, Elway feels better about this season than last season because he feels the team is more competitive. WTF has happened to John Elway? 3-6 is acceptable in his measure? What happened to his philosophy of “not only building a team to win, but building a team to win for now on?”

It’s okay to admit when you are wrong. I was wrong when I disagreed with Pat Bowlen’s decision to hire John Elway as GM. Elway was instrumental in making the Broncos Super Bowl 50 champions. He was instrumental in luring Manning and the free agents that helped win that game. Boy, was I happy to be wrong.

I just don’t see the passion and drive in Elway that he had back then. It was kind of a win at all costs type attitude. Now it seems more like settling for sub-mediocrity is okay with him as long as the scores are close. The old John Elway would have canned VJ during the bye week to send a message that losing is not tolerated. I think like many fans, I’m frustrated that John Elway appears to either have given up or just doesn’t know what to do. Either way, it’s not good.

What do you expect. In the midst of a season he will not fall on the sword for you or any one else. He will filter his feelings to the public because it is the right thing to do. You can't measure passion, so quit pretending you can. With bad drafts, veterans whose production is dropping before it was anticipated, questionable coaching, a QB who is not performing as hoped, limited cap flexibility - there is no give up, he is strapped by how fast he can change all of these things. Then there is the coaching situation. He is still the old competitive Elway. As a GM, there are no 4th qtr comebacks.

There's plenty to go around. Elway and the scouting department for not evaluating or valuing work ethic when it came to guys like Lynch, Henderson, Doss and getting enamored with toolset. Coaches like VJ/Kubiak who prioritized system over players. VJ said McCoy was his first call/choice for OC and he's been fired what twice now in two years? Same thing with last year's special teams coach. Kubiak for being dumb enough to think he could win with Siemian, Keenum, Tyrod Taylor.